1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of novelty shirts and more particularly to the field of long sleeve novelty shirts that can be manipulated by the wearer to selectively reveal an overall design.
Clothing is worn for two primary reasons. The first is obviously to meet customary decency standards with regard to physical exposure and the second is to provide protection from environmental factors. If, however, these were the only reasons for wearing clothing there would be relatively few patterns and colors available.
It is safe to assume that for as long as man has adorned himself or herself with any type of garment, it has been observed that the wearing changes the appearance of the wearer. Even today, we recognize that Presidents dress in a certain generally accepted way to convey power and authority while laborers dress in an entirely different way. We have even learned to classify the economic status of people by the way they dress while at work, labeling some as “blue collar” and others as “white collar” workers.
Clothing projects an image. It says something about the wearer. As a result, people use clothing to express themselves in a variety of ways. They may wear something that is “fun” when they want to be playful and they may wear something that is more formal when the situation so warrants.
In addition to economic status, clothing has long been recognized as also providing an expression of the wearer's values, lifestyle, attitude, or opinions. Some articles of clothing are worn more for their expressive value than for any other reason.
This is an important economic consideration. If a garment is deemed to be expressive of anything that the wearer wishes to convey, then that wearer is generally willing to pay a premium for that garment.
T-shirts, for example, often include a written message that indicates some position or opinion of the wearer. Alternately, the T-shirt or any other type of novelty shirt may be worn because it is intended to be humorous or fun to wear.
People are often complimented or otherwise acknowledged for the clothing they wear. Many people make their clothing purchase decisions with this in mind. In other words, they want to be noticed by others and they want others to pay attention to them. They do this by encouraging others to notice and possibly comment on the way they are dressed.
In this way, people use clothing as a means to engage in conversation or interaction with others. This is done by people of all ages. However, there are few ways in which an article of clothing, such as a shirt, can draw other people in to engage socially. A bright or unusual pattern or a provocative message on the shirt have been the principle ways to attract attention and thereby engage or interact with others.
Novelty shirts with various design patterns on them are universally popular. The shirts can have designs that are revealed at all times such as a pattern on the chest as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,772,503 to Donsky. They can also have portions of an overall design on different parts of the shirt (e.g., the chest and sleeves as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,980,929 and 5,117,507 to Long) wherein the wearer can manipulate the shirt parts to activate or reveal the overall design. In such wearer-activated shirts, the patterning of the design and its parts on the shirt must be very cleverly done and essentially determines how popular and unique the novelty shirt will be.
Accordingly, prior art novelty shirt designs are limited as far as the degree of expression that is possible and in their ability to elicit the voluntary engagement of others to participate or interact socially.
With this and other things in mind, the present invention was developed. In it, parts of an overall design are created on the sleeves of the shirt and the overall design is only revealed when the sleeves of the novelty shirt are crossed in front of the wearer's chest.
Additional patterns relating to the overall design can also be provided on the chest section of the shirt or on a hood, if desired.
Accordingly, there exists today a need for a novelty shirt that helps to ameliorate the above-mentioned problems and difficulties as well as ameliorate those additional problems and difficulties as may be recited in the “OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION” or discussed elsewhere in the specification or which may otherwise exist or occur and are not specifically mentioned herein.
Clearly, such an apparatus would be a useful and desirable device.
2. Description of Prior Art
T-shirts are, in general, known. For example, the following patents describe various types of these devices:    U.S. Pat. No. 4,772,503 to Donskey, that issued on Sep. 20, 1988;    U.S. Pat. No. 4,980,929 to Long, that issued on Jan. 1, 1991; and    U.S. Pat. No. 5,117,507 to Long, that issued on Jun. 2, 1992.
While the structural arrangements of the above described devices may, at first appearance, have similarities with the present invention, they differ in material respects. These differences, which will be described in more detail hereinafter, are essential for the effective use of the invention and which admit of the advantages that are not available with the prior devices.